The Queen Liz: a pub with no beer

The name “The Queen Elizabeth” in Graham Road, London E8, has been reinstated on the former three-storey pub that press releases used to say was the model for the Queen Vic in BBC1’s EastEnders.

Since selling its last pint at the height of the 1990s property boom, the building has been a happy-clappy church but the present developer, has no objections to the concept of alcohol and reinstating the name: its connection to a popular soap opera is bound to be a marketing aid when the time comes to sell the six flats being created within. And who can really object to a bit of faux tradition? Uhm, perhaps flat-seekers?

Nearby Fassett Square was the model for Albert Square in “Stenders”. Celebrity connections all round, that’s Hackney. But that shouldn’t put anyone off the borough.
Two detached brick houses that have been built on a garden-grab site behind the Queen Liz will go on sale at £600,000 each.